Re: VPN equals slow network folder access

Well, the next time I VPN'ed from home my gateway, WINS and DNS server changes were gone. I changed the mappings to use the corresponding IP address instead. No change in timing.

I can ping the works servers by name and IP address. RTT is 50ms either way.

A little more background. There are a total of 5 mapped drives: 1 drive from 1 server and the other 4 mapped to different folders on a second server.

If I start with no mapped drives, My Computer opens in < 1 second. As I add the mapped drives one by one, the time to open My Computer gradually lengthens until it's about 4-6 seconds with all 5 drives mapped. Even switching to another window and then back to an open My Computer window take 3-4 seconds for the window to refresh.

The time to open any mapped drive varies from 20 or 30 seconds to several minutes. I suspect that the time may be related to the size (# files and/or total size) of what's in the mapped drive. I'll try to gather some data on that.

Rune Flo wrote:
Do not change the [VPN]default gateway, but try eliminate the name resolution issue by using the IP address of your [work]file server when mapping the file share. ex. \\10.25.xx.xx\share
Can you successfully ping your [work] file server? 1. by name 2. by ip address. What are the average RTT times?

"Jerry" <Jerry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:81CB1AF5-BC8B-409D-9627-3D2319B5C42B@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The settings are different between direct connection at work and VPN
connection from home.

At work I have a 10.25.xx.xx DHCP address. The default gateway is also a
10.25.xx.xx. There are two DNS servers: 10.20.xx.xx and 10.30.xx.xx. The
primary and secondary WINS servers are the same as the DNS servers.

At home the VPN has a fixed 10.0.xx.xx address. The default gateway is the
same address. There are two DNS servers, both 192.168.0.xx. These are also
the WINS servers. I did change the Netbios option from the automatic option.

I deleted the shortcuts you suggested. Pressing F5 in My Network Places
finished immediately- no hangs. None of these improved the situation.

I then added in the default gateway and DNS/WINS servers that are used at
work and made sure they were first in the appropriate list. This has improved
the situation. Opening the mapped folder I normally access now takes 20-30
seconds vs. the 1-2 minutes it was previously taking. Another, larger mapped
folder takes about a minute vs. the up to 5 minutes it was taking previously.



"Rune Flo" wrote:

Hmmm,
My first suspicion here was name resolution, at home - have you checked that
name servers for DNS and WINS are set correctly (compare with office
settings. Use ipconfig/all). Make sure Netbios is enabled for your VPN
connection (WINS tab in TCP/IP Advanced properties).

Then, try deleting all shortcuts in "%userprofile%\Application
Data\Microsoft\Office\Recent" folder, this will impact Open/SaveAs dialogue
boxes when shortcut reference unavailable targets. At last try refresh (F5)
in "My Network Places" and look for "hang" on any shortcut's here, delete
"hanging" shortcut (right click/delete; may take loooong time before pop-up
appear)

Regards,
Rune.
"Jerry" <whoisit@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uXvhkjHVHHA.1552@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Actually it does happen with mapped drives as well as UNC paths.
--
Jerry


Rune Flo wrote:
Hi Jerry,

If name resolution works, have a look at this KB "You experience
significant delays when you use network shortcuts on a computer that is
running Windows XP SP2"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918204

Significant impact on slow links, fast links with network "latency" and
obvious VPN through broadband connections. Measurement (here) by "Netmon"
shows an improvement as high as 18:1.

Regards,
Rune.
P.S. Mapped network drives do not experience this delay.

"Jerry" <Jerry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:D2B98714-758C-4FB0-9D00-D12503B8961F@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I did have to reduce the MTU from 1472 to 1272. Neither that nor any of
the
other suggestions on that site seem to have made a difference. Any other
suggestionss?

"Robert L [MVP - Networking]" wrote:

It could be the computer browser and name resolution issue too. You may
try to browse it using the IP instead of the name. Also even the DSL
line can be 1.5 MB, the upload may be less than 1MB. This search result
may help too.

VPN slow issuesVPN slow issues Client can log on but can't browse the
LAN or browse the ... Symptom 5: The download is very slow on VPN
client after establishing the VPN. ...
http://www.chicagotech.net/vpnslow.htm


Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
http://www.HowToNetworking.com
"Jerry" <Jerry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:DDC3F041-4A08-4947-A987-7321C0BB31FA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have a work laptop running XP Pro. When I'm at work access to our
internal
network is fine- no more than several seconds to open any folder on
our
network.

At home I connect the laptop to my 1.5M DSL connection via ethernet
cable.
Once booted I use VPN to connect to the work network. Local work on
my PC
operates as normal, no slow down. Outlook is a bit slower, but
acceptable,
when retrieving and opening mail which i attribute to the connection
being
slower than the internal work network. Likewise Internet Explorer is
a bit
slower on intranet sights. But opening any internal network folder
literally
takes minutes instead of seconds. During that time all Explorer
windows are
essentially locked up.

What's causing the delay? My IT department just blames it on "the
Internet"
out I don't understand how. I've watched the network connection with
perfmon
and don't see any noticeable increase in traffic except for a very
small
spike when I first double click the folder. Is there really that much
traffic
when opening a folder that the combination of the slower internect
connection
and internet vagueries can affect times on the order of 50-100 times
or more?



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